Rick Chryst sat in Tuscaloosa, Ala., last Saturday night, furiously punching his cell phone pad and watching his dream materialize. This was it, he realized – the day when those millions poured into television contracts paid off, when college football fans’ ears finally perked at the mention of his Mid-American Conference.

As Chryst, the MAC’s commissioner, watched Northern Illinois beat No. 21 Alabama, 19-16, he chatted with MAC officials, who told him that Toledo had edged No. 9 Pittsburgh, 35-31. Earlier Saturday, Marshall knocked off No. 6 Kansas State, 27-20, ending the Wildcats’ 41-game non-conference home winning streak.

The MAC almost added another win when Bowling Green fell short at No. 5 Ohio State, 24-17. On Saturday, when Toledo meets Syracuse at 6:30 p.m. in the Carrier Dome, the Rockets will try for their second consecutive victory over a major-conference opponent.

While the MAC inched to the national forefront over the past several years – buoyed by increasing national television appearances and visible players like Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington – days like Saturday are paramount in earning Chryst an edge in lobbying for a MAC team’s spot in the Bowl Championship Series.

‘That’s our opportunity,’ Chryst said, ‘to take those great 12 hours and really try to sustain it.’

When Chryst started as MAC commissioner in May 1999, he proposed a simple, yet costly, goal: Get MAC football on national TV as often as possible. After all, in the 13 years before Chryst arrived, the conference had zero nationally televised, regular-season games.

‘The league really felt like it was under-recognized,’ Chryst said. ‘And it’s tough to jump start something standing still.’

So Chryst struck a deal with ESPN, and 23 regular-season MAC games appeared on national TV from 1999 to 2002. This year, MAC teams make 17 national-TV appearances – meaning a game between two MAC teams counts as two appearances.

The MAC even started yearning for the chance to play on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Anything to draw national-TV eyes.

All of this, of course, sapped the MAC’s piggy bank.

Largely because the league spent so much on TV contracts, it wallowed $1,047,709 in debt at the end of the 2000-01 fiscal year, according to an Internal Revenue Service statement reported last fall by The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, W.Va.).

Chryst disputed the MAC’s reported debt, saying the league tries to save money by producing some of its own football games.

‘Rick was very upfront (with league athletics directors) as far as the costs,’ said Mike O’Brien, Toledo’s athletics director. ‘In turn, what we’ve received back as far as the exposure has been more than we can hope for.’

Indeed, two of Toledo’s first three games this season appeared on ESPN.

In August, the MAC renewed its ESPN package, signing through the 2007-08 season. Eight to 10 MAC games will appear on national TV, which maintains the league’s current frequency, Chryst said.

But how much football talent does the MAC actually draw through its TV blitz?

The proof’s in the players: ‘I first remember watching (Toledo) on TV against Penn State,’ Toledo wide receiver Steve Odom said.

In that game three years ago, the Rockets traveled to Penn State and slammed the Nittany Lions, 24-6.

‘After that, they really didn’t want to play us anymore,’ Toledo head coach Tom Amstutz said.

When asked how the MAC changed from his days as a Toledo assistant coach (1977-86) to now, Amstutz said, ‘Talent.’

So perhaps the MAC subscribes to a simple chain equation: The TV exposure draws players; players win games.

But if Chryst learned anything these past three years, it’s that the future matters more than the present. He sacrificed millions for long-term TV exposure, and look how that – along with upset wins – legitimized his league.

Prognosticator Chryst, then, remains cautiously optimistic about the 2005 season, when the current BCS format expires. While the sinking Big East’s future will play a large role in determining if – and how – the BCS changes, the MAC may factor in the shakeout. Especially if the league performs like it did Saturday.

The BCS likely won’t add a seventh automatic-qualifier conference, Chryst said, which means that if the BCS retains its current stable (Big 12, ACC, SEC, Pac-10, Big East and Big Ten), the MAC would not earn an automatic spot.

‘But if there are changes,’ Chryst said, ‘it’s gonna have to allow the potential opportunity for anyone playing college football.’

In other words: If the MAC continues to beat major-conference opponents, the BCS must consider accepting a MAC team for one of its two at-large spots. Especially if the team posts a season like Marshall did in 1999, when the Thundering Herd went 13-0.

‘With what our programs are doing,’ Chryst said, ‘hopefully, we can be a big part of that for the 2006 season.’

Published on September 24, 2003 at 12:00 pm